Tapped in Hopkinton 2013

[SeanD]

Booked it home and put the rest of the taps on tubing in. Sap was pouring out so fast, the hammer was splattering sap all over the place. Lines were filling immediately. Finished up the last few in the dark, in show shoes, warm out, calm, geese honking overhead, crescent moon in the west. It's all good.

Sean

[NedL]

ARRRRGG. Hoping to get some in tomorrow. good luck!!!

[NedL]

Got 19 taps in today, hoping to double that this year....Sap was flowing like crazy

[SeanD]

I've been racing home from work every day to tap as many as I can before dark. I'm up to 75, now. Man, it is pouring out of the holes as soon as the bit comes out! The weather conditions are absolutely perfect. I'm getting 1 gpt per day. I'll be boiling this weekend for sure.

Ned, it looks like you'll get your mother load in 2013!

Sean

[SeanD]

Friday's run was huge. Almost 2 gal/tap on average. Who knows how much I lost to overflow. Last night I was running around until almost the end of the Bruins game collecting. There were a lot of long walks back with full buckets.

It was worth while tonight. Forget sweetening the pans. I drew off a little over a gallon of Light Amber before I got 100 gallons in on the first boil. My first draw was around the 80 gallon mark. My sap is just north of 2.5% Very little sugar sand - probably because the sugar content is up and it's not in the pan as long as usual.

Another 100+ gallons or so to get through tomorrow. I hope this keeps up.

Sean

[NedL]

First boil today. Small one. Most of the sap was frozen solid. Already had my first visitors wandering down the driveway to see what was going on. It's good to get going. I had some overflowing bucket too. And tehy were 6 gallon buckets! I have 2-3 tap flowing through tubes to them.

[eustis22]

SeanD, are you still using a coffee urn to bottle? I'm looking for some pointers on the filters, the temp, etc.

[SeanD]

No, I gave up on that. I loved the no-drip accurate filling, but my urn couldn't keep it to temp. So, I converted a steam pan to a bottler. I soldered a coupling onto the side of it, put a ball valve on it and then found a coffee urn spigot with NPT that I could screw on. I put it on my stove top and I can control the temp very easily. With the urn spigot, I have the best of both worlds.

The only thing I don't like is that having the heat right on the pan creates hot spots where niter can form. If I heat very slowly to 180-185 and stir constantly and keep it covered while I bottle, I'm able to minimize the hot spots. The other hard part is that at the end I have to tip the pan up to get the last bits into a container. With practice, I've got it down to where I can do the last few containers tipping and then leave the very last amount - 12 oz. or so for the house. My next goal is to convert it to a water jacket bottler like the one John Bushey built and posted on here.

I do all my filtering off the evaporator. I aim to draw finished syrup off, but always end up 2-3 points heavy. Then to bring it to density I'm just adding water. I figure that is easier than finishing and then filtering a second time.

The picture below shows the first spigot I tried until I found the coffee urn spigot. That was a game changer.

69696970

Sean

[eustis22]

ok..I was looking for how to fasten the filters onto the urn since I filter after finishing.

However, I did just order a 2 X 3 divided flat pan which I am just now realizing is a LOT different from steam pan boiling. Ima be going nuts bugging people on the how to for that one.

How do you filter off the evaporator?

[SeanD]

A bunch of people filter and bottle in their urn and are very happy with it. They put bolts or screws into the top to hook the filter on. Or they make a stand a little higher than the urn so the filters are up out of the urn more.

I use a wire garden fence that I turn into a circle like a tomato cage and I hang the filters off the top of that. It fits right under my draw off. I keep it hot and moist between draws by standing it up on top of the pans.

Sean

[SeanD]

Just about at the 500 gallon mark with sap. Drew off gallon number 11 last night - all Light Amber. I've never had this much light syrup. Last night's syrup was the lightest, yet. I thought it was wrong it was so light, so I retested it and it was actually a couple of points heavy. Sap going in was 3%!

The last two nights were above freezing so nothing is running. Looks like the forecast goes back to sugaring this weekend, though.

Sean

[SeanD]

Big run yesterday - 1 gpt. Pulled off gallon number 15+ tonight from 625 gallons of sap for the season. About another 90 gallons still in the barrels. All still very Light Amber. Unreal. Sap going in was 3% at 40 degrees. I forget the temperature correction, but it's still really high. Very little niter, very little foam. Passed the half-way point in my wood tonight.

Sean

[SeanD]

I was able to collect 1 gpt today, but that number is misleading. It only got down to 35 last night, so really this was just the continuation of yesterday's run. Many taps were already stopping while I was collecting.

Warm nights are forecast for tonight and tomorrow. After that it looks like freezing nights come back for short a while then back to warm. The end is in sight down here.

Sean

[SeanD]

I was able to collect 1 gpt today, but that number is misleading. It only got down to 35 last night, so really this was just the continuation of yesterday's run. Many taps were already stopping while I was collecting.

Warm nights are forecast for tonight and tomorrow. After that it looks like freezing nights come back for short a while then back to warm. The end is in sight down here.

Sean

[SeanD]

It's been a busy last two weeks. We had our longest boil of the season today - 14 hours. I had to get into the 2014 wood which just isn't dry enough yet, so it cut way down on my rate. In the end I was able to get through 245 gallons of sap and pull off five gallons of syrup. We hit 1,450 gallons of sap for the season (so far) and have about 31 gallons of syrup.

After making four gallons of Medium earlier this week, these last five today switched back to Light!

Sean

[SeanD]

All done here. The last drop went into the evaporator this morning. Got another gallon and a half or so from the last 60+ I put in. Stayed Light Amber right through the last bit pulled off. Never got buddy. Caught a couple of whiffs from time to time, but then back to a delicious smell.

Will finish off the sweet from the front pan in the kitchen tonight. Then I'll figure out season syrup totals.

Pulling taps tomorrow, then I'll give the buckets a quick wipe and rinse. The big wash gets done when it's 75 in June.

Bees were bringing pollen in this morning, so they're rearing brood. Time to switch hobbies.

Sean

[SeanD]

45 Days
87 Taps
1,600 gallons of sap (80 sold)
33 or 34 gallons of syrup (hard to be exact while they are still in bulk)
4 Gallons MA
1.5 Gallons DA
The rest is all Light
2.25 Cords of wood
I'm afraid to add up how much time boiling.

Good luck to everyone still going!

Sean

[Run Forest Run!]

What a great season! Congrats!

[foursapsyrup1]

Great season. You must have had some pretty sweet sap for that kind of yield. We ended up with 48 gallons of light amber after boiling 2100 gallons of sap.
Bring on the bees. I have to talk to you about the new venture.

[SeanD]

Those aren't such bad numbers yourself. Can you believe how much Light we got? I generally prefer the dark stuff, but I'm definitely getting a taste for the Light. I guess I don't have much choice now. :rolleyes:

Good luck with the clean up. I still owe you a visit.

Sean